With Open Hearts & Closed Eyes
by AndroidEvian
Summary: Finally! A sequel to "For the Good of All of Us." Joe and Françoise are assigned a task together while the rest of the team seemingly has already uncovered the first half.


With a start, Joe opened his eyes.

Bright lights shown over head, near blinding him.

He tried to move, but his arms weren't responding to his commands, nor his legs.

With some struggle, he realised his wrists and ankles were restrained, thick titanium bracelets ensnaring his limbs.

With a grunt of frustration he continued struggling, managing to rip his wrists free of the cuffs. Breaking free, he turned to see something familiar, but horrific.

"F-F…" His breath hitched in his throat as his mouth went dry with terror.

"Françoise!" On the wall, naked and bound in the same fashion as Joe was, hung the girl he'd grown fond of recently.

Her underbody had been ripped open, chest, forearms and thighs gaping as her cybernetic and organic innards were splayed out of her form for all to see.

Her heart, half flesh and mechanical materials, beat in her chest, swelling and contracting at the same pace as a human's. Her face twitched, her eyes opened, a horribly empty smile spreading over her lips.

"Hello. Who might you be?" the voice was hardly recognisable, the pitch, same as ever, but her tone was lifeless. "I'm Cyborg 003, the scout."_

"Françoise!" Joe awoke from his dream, cold sweat dripping from his skin and panting for breath as the door burst open. 004 and 008 were then by his side, shaking him to release him from his panic.

"009, snap out of it!" 004 aid, 008 handing him a glass of water and some medicine. After a moment, the ninth cyborg shook his head of the dream, gulping down the water after pouring the fever breaking liquid into it. He took his breaths slower, the fourth cyborg steadying him back into a lying down position on his bed. They sat in quiet a few moments, as if waiting for him to realise he was awake.

"You want to tell us what happened?" the silver haired cyborg asked.

"What made you wake up like that?" 008 added.

"Gomen…" 009 blushed a moment, embarrassed he'd woken them up like that. "I had a dream about Fr… 003."

"Did you now?" 004 smiled slightly in the dark, arms crossed.

"U-Urusei," Joe laughed slightly, the serious mood now a bit more comfortable. "In my dream, I was back in the lab, where us Cyborgs were created… 003. She was pinned up on the wall, like you'd see jesus on the cross. Her body was cut open everywhere, all wires and arteries, circuitry and sinew… I think what scared me the most was that in the dream she asked me who I was, like we'd never met. She also referred to herself as "003, the scout." She acknowledged herself as just a tool of warfare, and had no memories of me or anything good, i could see it in her eyes." the boy pulled his bedspread a bit tighter around himself. 004 had lit a cigar, and the sweet aroma was beginning to relax the ninth cyborg considerably. Going slack in his bed, he heard 004 and 008 get up and begin exiting the room.

"At least we didn't get up for nothing." he heard 008 murmur as the door closed behind him. 009's eyes were now heavy, and he closed them, his thoughts leaving his head as he faded back into sleep. _He made it through the rest of the night peacefully, and in the morning felt refreshed and without sickness. After showering thoroughly to get last night's cold sweats off him, brushing his hair through, and dressing himself, he went to the breakfast table and sat down with the other cyborgs, pleased to see Françoise was with them, and was greeted warmly. When she noticed he was among them, she spoke.

"Good morning, Joe." she said, passing him a helping of eggs and bacon from the huge portions at the centre of the table.

"Good morning, Françoise." he replied, taking the food from across the table and sitting back down in his chair, picking up his utensils to begin eating.

"What's got you two so close you call one another by name?" 002 inquired, crossing his arms with a faint smirk on his face. As if the rest of the group came to a simultaneous realisation, they all turned to the two and begin popping similar questions.

"It's nothing you guys, it's just that she's the one who brought me here, remember?" Joe answered, surrounded by his male peers as his cheeks took on a red hue."

"Please tell me that's all, my lady." Great Britain begged, looking over at 003 with dismay.

"Um… yes, but 009 also saved me from that thing when I was sick…"

"003!" They all said together, seemingly ganging up on her to inquire further about her habit of calling their newest member by name and his habit of doing the same for her."

"Good Heavens, that's enough you all!" Dr. Gilmore said, suddenly with all of them. "The two of them have only just recovered from the shock of that last attack and you're already trying to overwhelm them again!" He joked, shaking his head. "Anyway, you've all got patrol to do, 009, 003, you come with me when you're finished eating, I have something to discuss with you two." The rest of the team filed out the door, leaving the fore mentioned pair in silence. It grew awkward after a few moments, and Joe spoke up, hoping to break the uncomfortable air.

"Aha… I guess they think we're some sort of couple now." He chortled slightly, hand in his hair.

"It would seem that way." Françoise agreed, "Though I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a certain bond after the times you've saved me by now." she smiled, looking down into her tea.

"A-Ah! Naturally, I feel the same considering you also have saved my life before... don't give me all the credit." he replied, blushing sheepishly.

"Yes, i'd be very disappointed if you chose to go back on that promise now." the blonde laughed softly. "A team functions best when all its members really care for one another. When they all care for one another, that increases their drive to succeed, because it's for the good of all of them. When one of the team members is in trouble, the whole team is motivated to go help him or her." Joe looked at her in awe, watching the smile on her face and the gleam of sunlight enhance the passion in her eyes. "Oh, sorry, you must think I'm so cliché, talking about our team in such a hackneyed way." she said awkwardly.

"No, no, I totally agree with what you said, I'm just surprised you can be so optimistic and in touch with the emotional aspects of h… people after all you've been through. It's a good quality."

"My brother taught me to always be kind and understanding, no matter the situation. He told me it would be the glue that held the people I love together." She murmured, a nostalgic smile on her face.

"You have a great older brother then." he commented, watching her hands clutch the time piece around her neck in remembrance.

"003, 009, are you ready to talk now?" Dr. Gilmore called from the other room.

"Ah. We're coming, Dr. Gilmore." Joe called back, getting up from his chair and Françoise following suit._

Françoise and Joe stared intently at the photo Dr. Gilmore held in his hands. The kid in it had long, copper blonde hair and cedar eyes, dressed in a uniform, and walking through a field of sunflowers. He looked to be about thirteen. Dr. Gilmore looked every bit as puzzled as they did, shaking his head and rubbing the bridge of his large nose with frustration. Finally, Françoise cleared her throat and spoke up.

"Dr. Gilmore, are you sure this is right? He looks too young to have withstood any cybernetic alterations to his body."

"And what about 001? He was an infant at the time of his alteration. He's the first of us and the youngest. Well… physically, that is. Considering how long he was a sleep he's much older than any of us."

"This kid is fairly recent though, in addition to the 00 cyborg line, right?" Joe questioned.

"Yes, he's a new addition, but they finished the 00number series at 13. He's what's called a 00X cyborg. Before he was altered, he was called Tsutsugami Seiko, but his memories were distorted."

"That's terrible… he's the first of the 00X series, right?" Joe continued, studying the photo even more intently, if that was possible, and the Dr. nodded.

"What does the X stand for?" Françoise asked, quietly, tracing her fingers over the outline of the boy's figure on the photograph.

"X is a factor in mathematics to represent the unknown… the abilities of this 00X cyborg are not programmed, but are self manifesting, a reflection of the child's nature."

"That's why the 00X cyborg is so young…" Joe tightened his grip on the desk, gritting his teeth as a chunk came off in his hands; the cyborg facility was using the kid's imagination for limitless power.

"Joe!" 003 cautioned, trying to calm his sudden anger. Shamefacedly, Joe let go of the table, realising his rage with the Black Ghost's choice of test subjects had gotten the better of him.

"Gomen…" He murmured. "What's our objective with this kid?"

"Find him, convince him to come back here with you and Françoise, and we'll see if we can remove his powers and memories to give him a chance at a normal life… If that doesn't work, we'll figure something else out when the problem arises."

"Understood." the third and ninth cyborg said together. _Patrol was finally over for 002 through 008. Nothing particularly dangerous had come up lately, but there had been some rather… strange sights in the forests, to be polite. Some of the trees looked twisted and gnarled beyond natural, almost contorted by hands with the intent to torture things into some twisted art form. The ground had traces of paw marks from some unknown animal. A particularly beautiful looking fox the group stumbled across had fingerprint like indentions on its neck, tears streaming from its eyes in a terror as strong as a human's. 005 felt so sorry for it, he actually cradled the animal until it looked serene, and let it go off on its way. The rest of the team had departed after these disturbing patrol findings, but 005 was intent on staying. He wouldn't have a clean conscience until he found the source of this chaos. Following the most disturbing sights in the forest, he came across a clearing, where a faint, red mist seemed to flood the air and sparkle in the sunlight. Letting his hand hand pass through it, the mist coagulated in his hand. Blood… he realised, suddenly sensing danger. A sticky rope suddenly caught him by the throat, stringing him up to a whole grid of the material. A web… a giant spider crawled onto the web, bigger than him, and he suddenly heard laughter, tinkling and innocent, split the silence of the clearing. A young girl, hand extended with slightly bent fingers, came into view. Her hair was gold, her eyes were cedar, and she was dressed in a uniform. 005 didn't understand at first, trying to warn her it was dangerous but she only laughed again as he spoke, shaking her head.

"You don't understand silly. I am the danger here." she squeezed her small hand into a fist, tightening the rope around his throat. With a growl, 005 managed to tear the web from his neck, making the girl stumble backwards in shock.

"Come with me quietly. I'd hate to have to hurt a child." the girl's face soured at 005's quiet words, her hands causing the giant spider to wrestle with 005, more giggles escaping her mouth as he held it at bay from the shoulders, dodging his head from its pincers. "I'm not just any little girl as you can see. I'm 00Xb!"

"Such a young cyborg…" 005 muttered, still wrestling the huge black widow on top of him.

"You bet. My father gave me over to the black ghost when I was 10. They spent three years working on me, and now, as a present for my thirteenth birthday, I get to kill you and the 00numbers." she imitated the spider's pincers clicking together with her thumb and index, but before the action could be received by the creature, a snarl came from the distance, and the girl made a surprised cry. 005 looked over a moment to see the fox that earlier had finger marks around its neck, attacking the girl, growling and snapping its jaws at her face. In this distracted moment, 005 ripped the pincers from the spider, causing it squeal and flee from him, disintegrating into nothingness.

"ENOUGH!" 00Xb screamed, telekinetically throwing the fox into a nearby tree, making it whimper. "I was sent here to destroy you and your team and I will go through with it!" Her hair billowed upwards from behind her like a mane, her eyes wild with rage and a terrible grin on her face. Distortions formed everywhere around 005, but before she could get to anything sinister, he punched the earth as hard he could, creating a deep ditch, and the girl fell in screaming, but was silent. He looked down into the ditch, seeing she wasn't dead, but wouldn't rise for sometime. he looked over at the tree where the fox had been thrown, and he noticed how weak it looked standing up. Its spine had been disjointed, and he invited it to sit in his lap. While he stroked it for sometime, distracting it, he popped the vertebrae back into place at the least noticeable moment. 005 smiled as the fox trotted away with the former grace it had exhibited earlier, after he'd calmed it down. He then looked back at the cyborg girl he'd managed to knock unconscious. She was extremely powerful, that much had been made obvious, but her recklessness and inexperience had made her easy to overpower with the help of the fox. He threw the girl over his arm, her ruffled skirt seeming to bear more weight than she did. She's emaciated… I wonder what else Black Ghost has starved her of, aside from the meals her parents never served.


End file.
